🧢 Captain's Log

Sun 18 Aug 1946 🧢 1st XIv DC Davington Priory CC · AwayformLWLDD

Sunday 18 August 1946, and off we trotted to Davington Priory in reasonable heart, though the coin let us down at the outset — they won the toss and sent us in, which is never quite the welcome one hopes for on someone else's ground.

We needn't have worried. Ron Wratten batted like a man with somewhere important to be, cracking a superb 104 that did most of the damage, while young Stan chipped in with a tidy 20 in support. Runs enough on the board, and the tea urn no doubt working overtime by the time we came off.

Then it was our turn to make life difficult for them, and difficult we duly made it. Eric Jacobs battled to 27 for the opposition, but there was little else to trouble the scorers — Clifford Jacobs departed without troubling them at all, bowled by our lot for a golden duck. Herbert Rayner was in irresistible form, spinning his way to 5-26 and thoroughly bamboozling the home batting, with X Stroud (3-8) and Stan Wratten (2-20) mopping up what little resistance remained. Stan's brace, incidentally, was enough to nudge him past Tom Peach Snr into 17th on the club's all-time wicket-takers list — a fine bit of history-making on an otherwise ordinary Sunday.

We ran out winners by 91 runs. Ron leads the run charts and Herbert the wickets for the summer, and on this evidence neither shows much sign of slowing down. A thoroughly good day for the club, and one for the scorebook to remember.

Sat 20 Jul 1946 🧢 1st XIv Gore Court CC · AwayformLLWLD

Saturday 20 July 1946, and the road took us to Gore Court, where losing the toss left us in the field first — never the omen a captain hopes for, but the lads set about their work regardless.

Gore Court ground out 173 all out from 43.5 overs, Brian French's fifty-plus 52 the backbone of it, with young Jack Whibley Jnr chipping in a useful 44. But it was Gordon Fenner who owned the afternoon — six wickets for 55, four maidens of positively miserly discipline, and Albert C E Richardson sent packing without so much as troubling the scorers. T Henley and Bert Buckoke did their bit too, and between 134-4 and 141-7 we simply ran through them. A fine, purposeful bowling display all round.

Our reply promised much and delivered less. Tom Osborn batted beautifully for 73, well supported by Ron Wratten's 22, the pair adding 52 for the second wicket and looking, for a while, like men who might finish the job. Then came the collapse cricket clubs are built on — 133-4 became 133-7 before you could blink, Bert Pierce, Frank Sutton and Bert Buckoke all departing for ducks. Your correspondent, in the interests of full disclosure, also made a duck, and the less said about that the better.

140-9 in reply to 173 meant honours shared — a draw when neither side could force the issue. Not the tidiest of afternoons, but Fenner's bowling and Osborn's bat gave us plenty to toast in the bar.

Sun 14 Jul 1946 🧢 1st XIv DC Davington Priory CC · HomeformDLLWL

Sunday 14 July 1946, and Davington Priory rolled up to Linton Park under skies that, for once, seemed to favour cricket. Winning the toss, I put them in — a decision I shall claim full credit for, whatever the scorebook eventually made of it. F Bassant made a handsome fifty, 62 in all, with Reginald Jacobs chipping in a tidy 39, but our attack had the last word: Herbert Rayner bowled beautifully for 4-49, with Barry Langridge (3-40) and Gordon Fenner (2-34) squeezing from the other end. A fine shift by the lads, and honours very much shared at that stage of proceedings.

Our reply leaned heavily on Stan Wratten, whose 62 was the innings of the day — and a landmark one at that, taking him past 1,000 career runs for the club, a milestone he wore lightly but which had the rest of us thumping the pavilion table. Frank Sutton's unbeaten 24 was no less significant, easing him past E C Streatfield and into 15th on the club's all-time run-scorers list; Ron Wratten's 21 rounded out a solid effort in the middle order.

With Stan now topping our 1946 run charts on 86 and Herbert leading the wickets with 11, the form is unmistakably there — even if today's honours went unclaimed by either side. A draw, then, but a thoroughly good-natured one: history made, no losers, and the tea every bit as good as advertised.

Sat 01 Jun 1946 🧢 1st XIv Gore Court CC · HomeformLDLLW

Lost the toss on a fine Saturday afternoon, 1st June, and duly found ourselves leather-hunting as Gore Court CC took first strike — which, given what followed with the bat, may have been the shrewder half of our day's luck. They ground their way to 153 for 9 off 41.4 overs, though we did at least strike early, the first wicket falling for just 1. After that the second-wicket pair settled in and put on a stubborn 63 to steady the innings, with Robert Hedges (43) and Jack Whibley Jnr (42) doing the heavy lifting, well backed by Albert C E Richardson's 26. Herbert Rayner, though, was magnificent, tearing through them for 5 for 62, with N Judge (3-30) and T Henley (1-30) mopping up nicely in support.

Then came our reply, and here the less said the better. Seven for one seemed almost respectable; what followed — 47 for 5 collapsing to 58 for 8 in a positive scramble for the pavilion — was not. L Ricketts, Frank Sutton and K Vince all fell without troubling the scorers, and your correspondent, I must confess, contributed his own blob to proceedings. All out for 60 in 25.5 overs was a chastening return.

A word of cheer amid the wreckage: Maurice Fenner sits second in this season's run charts, and Herbert Rayner tops the wicket-takers with seven. Beaten by 93 runs, then — not our day, heads up, and back to the nets.

Sun 26 May 1946 🧢 1st XIv DC Davington Priory CC · AwayformLLDLL

Sunday 26 May 1946 saw us take the road to Davington Priory, and for once the coin let us down at the toss — they chose to bat, and we trooped out into the field wondering what the afternoon held. As it turned out, rather a lot went our way. H Baldock departed without so much as troubling the scorers, and things rather unravelled for the home side from there. L Ricketts was the chief tormentor with 3-18, ably assisted by Herbert Rayner's tidy 2-3 and Gordon Fenner's 2-14 — bowling of the sort that makes a captain feel he's picked the right eleven for once.

With the innings wrapped up, it fell to us to see the job through, and Stan Wratten led from the front with a top score of 24 — not a knock for the ages, perhaps, but exactly what was needed on the day. We got home by 6 wickets, tidy and unfussy.

A word for the record books: those three wickets nudged L Ricketts past T Gandy and up to 24th on the club's all-time list — the sort of small, quiet milestone that means rather more to the man himself than to anyone watching from the boundary. With the season young, Wratten and Ricketts now sit atop our 1946 charts for bat and ball respectively.

All told, a fine win, gained without undue alarm. Onwards.